Between the deer and the extreme cold snap we had last winter, a lot of our shrubs were severely damaged. The bushes I expected to die, if any did, were the gardenias. The two dwarf gardenias lost most of their leaves, and the bigger variegated variety lost all of its leaves. The dwarf plants looked like they might survive, but I had real doubts about the variegated one. It looked dead for a long time, but now it’s coming back.
First a few shriveled-looking leaves showed up, and then lots of tiny leaves sprouted. The largest leaves look like butterflies from a distance.
Here you can see all the leaves from smallest to largest.
I think it’s going to make it. I’m a little surprised. Variegated plants seem generally less hardy than their normal varieties, and I know from my childhood that gardenias in general are not hardy in very cold weather. When I was a boy, the big gardenia outside our kitchen window had to be cut back to the ground several times that I can remember. I thought about pruning ours severely, but decided to wait. I’m glad I did.
This gardenia has been a good addition for years. It blooms infrequently and sparsely, but the yellow and light green leaves provide a good splash of color year-round. That’s the attraction of variegated plants.
We have some other variegated plants that survived the winter and the deer with no problems. We have four variegated yuccas out near the road, and two have bloom stalks that are not far from opening. This is several plants growing in a cluster.
I’ll take some pictures of those after they open, too.
I put three variegated yuccas in the leach field, but they gradually declined until there was virtually nothing left above ground. I dug up their remains recently and planted them around the yard. Only one seems to have survived. However, I have found one volunteer that seems to be doing well. I just noticed that a few tiny yucca leaves have shown up where I removed the old plants. I must have left some roots there.
We put a few variegated liriope in what we call the island at the edge of our driveway. They seemed to barely survive for years, but this year they look pretty good.
These are green and white. It’s not that easy to tell here, but they provide a good contrast to the dark green of the normal liriope and vinca growing here. We also have some green and yellow variegated liriope that’s nice, and maybe a little more vigorous than these.
So all in all, our variegated plants seem to have survived the winter, some better than others. Maybe next winter won’t be so bad.
I’m just catching up, but I particularly like this post on variegated plants. I can’t speak to the gardenias though.
I’d tend to agree that variegation is probably not a very good natural fitness strategy, but humans do seem to like them. I have a liriope much like the one in your photograph – we planted it in a compromising place that it seems content to stay in, and it’s very nice.
Some of these variegated plants are unstable. People who plant variegated horticulturals might have noticed that often a normal unvariegated branch will develop. This is probably a revertant mutant that restores normal coloration (or maybe a complementation mutant). Gardeners will clip these off quickly, or they’ll tend to outgrow the rest of the plant, which I think is evidence that you’re right about fitness.
We’ve had barberries (that we got rid of) that did such reversion things. We’ve had some variegated mints that never have reverted, as well as some grasses with variegated yellow stripes that seem stable. Coleus seems pretty stable.
I occasionally see such variegations in the wild but they don’t persist left to themselves.
Wayne — The variegated gardenia actually sprouted a branch with solid dark green leaves. I cut it off.